That would make sense if other people's suffering was equal to my own. But its not, their problems are dramatically easier to solve, ameliorate, w.e. Not to mention, being aware of someone elses problems does absolutely nothing to help them, it might make you more depressed, but it sure as fuck wont HELP you.
Because you wouldn't want to be subjected to suffering yourself. It's not complicated.
All humans everywhere desire the end of their own suffering. We're awful at minimizing it but you can see our hamfisted attempts in our seeking out of pleasures and avoidance of activities which are unpleasant, stressful, and painful.
When we observe other humans/animals hurting most of us feel with what is suffering.
Because suffering is suffering. If we distinguish suffering of good people from bad people then we have to expand this to a spectrum, the best people suffering is the worse, and worse people suffering is the best. But then it's all just relative, who is good, who is bad is your opinion. Most rational people would consider their own suffering to be the worse.
It is pretty easy to ignore the suffering of others if you can convince yourself that it is a different and simpler form of suffering than you feel -- just look at how a lot of humans (and I'm talking about ones that are accepted by society, not crazy psychopaths) treat animals (eg. circus elephants).
When my wife uses this line of reasoning I point out that she's taking solace in other people's pain. It's kind of a joke, but it's also kind of true. Don't need to minimize your own suffering just because someone else suffered more.
i think a lot about this (more than i think about my research). i wholeheartedly agree not because i feel obligated but simply because i'm able to - my life is not precarious (it used to be) and others' lives are. i've argued it from many perspectives (pragmatism, morals, etc) but the simple truth is i'm pained by the fact that other people are living hopeless and miserable lives. so i help and give and sacrifice because i can and it's the only thing i can do.
unfortunately most people simply don't care. maybe they're lucky for that but there's a sartre quotation that comes to mind (i think it's from no exit): the only pain you could've avoided was being ignorant of others' pain.
edit: sorry i was wrong it was kafka
"You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid."
No clue why you're being downvoted, what you say is the correct response. Suffering is all around us and deep, but that's not license to inflict more of it on others.
I truly don’t understand the mindset that suffering is not only something that we should not try to eliminate, but something that we should actually indoctrinate people into.
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